Spokesman for the task force, Lieutenant Colonel Jonah Unuakhalu, revealed this in a statement made available to newsmen on Monday.
Browsing: ESN
Also nabbed was a member of the group alleged to be one of the gunmen saddled with the enforcing sit-at-home in the state.
The Nigerian Army troops achieved the feat with operatives of the Navy, Police and local vigilantes.
It was gathered that the police in Ozubulu and Umunze in Anambra State smashed these two deadly syndicates.
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says the Air Component of Operation UDO KA II, has destroyed several hideouts of the Indigenous People of Biafra and its Eastern Security Network in Anambra and Imo states.
The hoodlums suspected to be members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its armed affiliate Eastern Security Network (ESN) stormed the Commission’s office around 4.30 pm scaling the fence into the premises.
The group said this in a statement issued by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, on Monday.
The CP who disclosed this in a statement issued Wednesday in Owerri, the capital city said that the police were trying to track down the hoodlums.
The statement signed by Presidency spokesperson, Garba Shehu, read in full, ”The Presidency wishes to caution against any knee-jerk reactions, the creation of panic, disruption of lives and livelihoods, or even retaliatory violence following the viral videos of the alleged killings of non-indigenes by the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and its mother terrorist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
In a statement on Wednesday, the group’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, said those killed by soldiers in Iheoma and Amaifeke, Orlu LGA of Imo State were not IPOB members or Eastern Security Network operatives “because IPOB volunteers don’t enforce non-existent Monday sit-at-home”.
This is just as the group also unveiled the names of sponsors of the criminal elements in the region.
He spoke at a one-day Peacebuilding and Security Dialogue held in Awka on Saturday over the zone’s security challenges.
The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria during his inaugural address at the Government House, Agu-Awka, Awka, the state capital, said he has no time to waste but would start work immediately.
Nigeria Police had issued a press release on Sunday August 22, alleging that Ms Okolie worked with the ESN as a spy to perpetrate the series of violent attacks on police operatives and public institutions, including offices of the National Electoral Commission.
Ms Okolie, a native of Umutanza in Imo State, was arrested following ongoing investigations and implementation of the special operation, Operation Restore Peace, set up to, amongst other things, break the information, drugs and arms supply chain to the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network in the South-East region.
The Command’s Commissioner, Aliyu Garba, who disclosed this at press briefing on Monday, said the meeting had in attendance a Cross River State-based native doctor, simply identified as Ezemuo, who had been invited to fortify members of the group with marks on different parts of their bodies, as antidote to bullets.
In a 19-second video obtained by The Eagle Online, a yet-to-be identified ESN leader is seen addressing apparently aggrieved members of the militia, promising that the money will no longer be sent through their condinator, so that the camp will not be divided.
The Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima, in a statement on Monday said contrary to reports, no soldier was killed in Ohafia Local Government Area of the state.
The Eastern Security Network is the paramilitary organization of the Indigenous People of Biafra, a pro-Biafra separatist movement.
The Nigerian Army, which disclosed this in a statement, said five other members of the group were also arrested.